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Israel at 75 Is Threatened but Strong
(Wall Street Journal) Walter Russell Mead - For the first 25 years of Israel's independence, American presidents were more interested in cultivating Arab leaders than in aligning with Jerusalem. Only after Richard Nixon concluded that an Israeli defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War would empower the Soviet Union across the Middle East did Washington move toward a strategic relationship. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Washington saw Jerusalem as a necessary partner in containing Iran and, after 9/11, the war on terror. American policy toward Israel depends on how a given U.S. president sees American interests world-wide. For the past half-century, American presidents generally believed that the Middle East, thanks to its oil reserves, was a high priority in America's strategy of global engagement and that a close relationship with Israel on balance strengthened America's position in the region and beyond. The likelihood of a wholesale American withdrawal from the Middle East is likely overestimated. The energy transition will probably take longer and be less total than greens hope. And global geopolitical competition is more likely to buttress American support for limiting Chinese influence in the Middle East. In any case, Israel today is orders of magnitude stronger, wealthier and more influential than it was in 1948. The writer, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, is Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College.